Village by the Park - arrival of a medium sized rotary drilling rig

Today you can see on the Options for Homes site at Keele St. and Dundas St. the erected pile driver Bauer BG 24H medium sized rotary drilling rig in the parcel of land near the tracks at the lower end of the sloped site.  Wondering if this is a little early as most of the old Canadian Tire Store remains standing still. Could it be they need shoring up on the slope down from the abutting tracks simply to take down the existing building?

Front gardens of note

The junction has a majority of small front yards, many people enjoy using their yard for a ornamental garden, which when done make the ave or street a more enjoyable space. This garden in the junction is carefully tended and edited during the growing season with differnt plants and flowers.  The garden itself is  a bridge between the veranda and the street, providing a real community feel. Compared with houses just up the street from this garden where the homeowner has simply allowed a mass of weeds to grow  covering the front lawn, Thomas and Marven - the owners of this garden should complemented.

things you need to know when buying an older house in the junction

Thinking of buying an older house in the Junction?  Ok, well the vast majority of the houses are just old, with only a few new townhouses around ...new being the past 20 years ;-).  Buying the house comes with one item you cannot avoid - prior renos.  Think 'onion', except it's very hard to peel, and you may find that someone else has already been inside and replaced a layer with whatever loose cinder blocks, brick and pieces of wood they may have had lying around.

So, before you snatch up that old Victorian steal, stop;  and ask neighbours, the agent, the seller, and yourself some of these important questions:

How many owners has the house had? (ie. how many layers are there?)

What's that white, paper insulation around the pipes? (asbestos)

Why is that piece of plywood nailed to the basement wall? (hiding a hole?)

Were the past owners nice? (tells volumes about what you may find)

Should that sparking wire be sticking out of the floor?

Many people try to do renos themselves, and the older the house the more people that have probably done something wrong.  Always get a house inspection- if even only to have someone to curse when you find the toilet doesn't flush.  And, always go in with your eyes open and make sure you love the house enough to put up with some lengthy retro-repairs.  Oh, and try to think of what the house was and what it should be when making any changes.  Finally, remember that one of the main selling points of any house in the Junction is that it's in the Junction.

Posted by Louis

Arts Junction Blog series on arts in the Junction

Art of the Junction is a series of posts on creative happenings in the junction currently being posted by the  Arts Junction Blog. Their method of a series of interrupted posts really provides a continuum, where everyone can truly get a feel of the ebb and flow of the arts energy in the community.

Freed's quiet condo demo

Freed Development's Six50 (650) King West - 214 Unit Residential Condominium project has begun demolition -    quietly it seems, questioned a office worker- a  project manager - type located in the building 1 or 2 doors down, was not aware of the  demo that was creating the huge pipe of debris outside the back of the building where he worked.  Visible from Spadina Ave just north of King St currently the demo provides a bit momentary visual excitement.  Sitting in wait is a larger piece of equipment surely bought in to completely make people working in the buildings around the development aware that they have begun, and reinforce to those who have purchased condos in the new building that their new home has had it's curtain raising.

Past Freed Development posts

Freed Developments sovereign rights declared

hemmed in

The Gardiner Expressway is raised well above ground level but one can barely see the lake from this spot just west of High Park where a new Lakeshore Rd. West condo is going up in the air space between two others. This new condo addition will create a wall of condos, barring any views  - air flow? to the areas just west of High Park. Further socially the wall of condos with their private property rights will block the the free flow of all people to the greatly expanded waterfront park system. Robert Moses would have been proud of the city planner who ok'd this.

Interesting house of the day 4 -189 Franklin Ave

This house even without all of the selling agents buildup is a home, at least it's looks  like it is from the outside. The home offers a veranda with flower boxes and chairs to sit on. The veranda is roofed which is great for standing on in rainstorms and feeling the mist, and bringing in the kids and food without getting soaked as you search for the key. The second floor has a small but usable bay window.  Looking at the picture you can just see the current owners made the house a home, which probably indicates it was maintained well and retros were done with care.

from the listing... link to listing

Basic Details

• 3+1 bedroom(s)  1 kitchen(s)   Approx. lot size is 18.00 x 106.00 Feet


• Estimated annual taxes is $2609.70


• Additional Details

• Central Air Conditioning  2-Storey style living  Detached style living  Brick Exterior


• Detached garage with 2 parking space(s)  2 parking spaces total


• Sewers system <-- (don't know what this is anyone know?)

Why does a Pickering publisher think they are needed here?

Today a paper arrived, it's new?  What is it for?  Why do the publishers of this paper think the Junction community needs a paper from an American company with a branch publishing arm in Canada?  Simply this is a commercial enterprise seeking to profit from the held belief the Junction is demographically an upcoming community. A little research has shown this company likes real estate ads to feed on.  If this effort was a commercial company formed by a group of West Toronto citizens intent on publishing a real community paper, people who walk the streets each day and catch the thoughts in the air - great. Is this paper really necessary or is it simply a problem?

Troubling as the the idea of this drop in paper is, further most if not all the editorial content seems to be off the shelf, with no local authors.

This papers appearance may remind some people of the Port Hope newspaper The Crier a protest newspaper 1st published in 1999 by some Port hope citizens troubled with Conrad Black's ownership of the local newspaper, the Evening Guide. Author Farley Mowat was one of the backers of this great paper that lasted but 15 months -  it ended later after Black put all of his papers up for sale.

Maybe the community protest here should be to the advertisers who support this effort? As long as they buy ads these guys will stick around- no ads and they are gone.

Comments are important for this post... please

The publishers web site click here

Vine Parkette is Flush with cash- Will they spend it without your input?

In August of 2006 the community had a meeting in Vine Ave Parkette with the local councilor and the park manager -  the outcome was... the money wasn't there to replace the equipment, and this sort of thing took a long time. Well someone in the parks department has does a great job and by using development charges levied on developers has put together $40000.00 which is just short of $7000.00 of the $47000.00  the parks manager stated would be the ballpark price to replace the playground equipment.

A long time has passed...the community has been quietly and trustfully waiting...

Well isn't it time we all contacted the parks department and asked them to accept the communities input?

Parks general email: parks@toronto.ca     Telephone:416-392-1111

Note: Thanks to the reader who drew attention to the current and  immediate need to get the message regarding this issue out... thanks.    Here is a PDF File about the issue at the City site, from which the above images came.